Reward And Punishment In Our Lives, Part 5

Question: From the perspective of nature, which of our actions are considered correct and beneficial and can lead us to a good life so we don’t receive punishment from nature?

Answer: All of nature is a closed, integral system, all parts of which—inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human—are bound by the same network.

The law of an integral system is that each element influences all others. This means that each particle must sense itself as belonging to the entire system and behave in a way that benefits the entire whole. Not for the benefit of some individual part, and not for its own benefit, but absolutely for the entire system.

People don’t understand this law and are unable to reveal it. However, aside from people, all other parts, that is, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, are integrated within this closed system.

The entire universe is one integral system. And if we pick any fragment of planet earth and study it, it will be clear that all elements are absolutely interrelated, as if connected by one inner network that is hidden from us and follows a specific program called nature.

We can ask, “What is a human being?” A human being is a special case. On the one hand, because of his animal body, he belongs to the animal world. And so it is clear the body must be obligated to be in a specific instinctive connection with the system. But there is also a part in him that belongs to the speaking level because  of which he is called human.

In this part, it is as if he is disconnected from the system and behaves as if the system does not exist. A person does not instinctively feel the connection and does not feel unity with the web of nature; therefore, he behaves in whatever way he pleases. This “free” form of behavior, without any connection with the system, is called egoism. In his relationship with the system of nature, a human being only considers his immediate benefit.

Maybe he will think differently twenty years from now, but that is not important to him because he is only fixated on the stream of momentary experiences of his life that he perceives now. If in this moment he does not possess that which he desires, then he considers it a punishment. And if suddenly he receives what he needs, then he deems it a reward.

Naturally, while being disconnected from the general system, these rewards and punishments turn out to be false because a person does not see all that is dependent on his actions and that is why he makes mistakes. He exists within a system, but he is not able to take into consideration all its elements, he doesn’t feel these interdependencies. It turns out that all of his perception of reality is incorrect.

Question: If I feel this as reward and punishment, then why should I care that they are false? I received what I wanted, didn’t I?

Answer: Then why are people unhappy? If we judge what reward and punishment is only by our immediate experience and act only according to this, attempting to gratify our momentary desires, then we will have to put up with one disappointment after another.

If we could always win in this way, then it would be possible to accept this objection. However, we see that we are constantly losing. The further a person advances, the more he has to defend himself as a result of his egoistic relationship to life and his pursuit of immediate gratification.

No matter how much we develop society, government, family, sciences, and medicine, we still cannot compensate for the damage and negative reaction of the system to our behavior. Wouldn’t it seem that as we progress in our development we should be able to increasingly understand and sense nature?

But it turns out to be the opposite: we progress more and more in our development of our incorrect relationship with nature. We are constantly growing further from nature, from connection to the integral system, and ultimately, we turn into such individualists who are no longer concerned with anything at all, except our own gratification.

In the end, a person may turn to drugs, not wanting to think about anything. He doesn’t want to tie himself down to anyone in order to remain completely free and without any obligations…
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From KabTV’s “A New Life #822,” 2/2/17